the baffled king composing hallelujah

mood: curious

music: Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah

So how old are you, and what's your favorite version of "Hallelujah"?

In continutation of the Gross Leonard Cohen Earworm (apparently "Hallelujah" is the meme that will not quit this week) of the last few days, inauroillium just posted an an interesting link about the evolution and major versions of the song in a comment thread on cvillette's journal.

In full disclosure, I should mention that I have... 14 versions of "Hallelujah," by 11 different artists, including three Cohen versions. (I would like the k.d. lang live versions and the Imogen Heap, but haven't tracked them down yet. Really though, I think the jewel of the collection is the Willie Nelson. He also does a bangup job with "Bird on a Wire.")

And I'm also going to talk in sweeping generalities here, and please be aware that I am talking about observed trends rather than categorical truths here, and that I'm aware that sweeping generalities are bull puckey.

But I think I really disagree with the reviewer's conclusion. I suspect that what's going on here is actually the opposite process, in which a bunch of forty/thirty/twenty-something musicians who grew up as part of far more ironical generations have found this amazing song seemingly neglected by their elders, and are covering the hell out of it.

And being limited by not being what Cohen is--which is to say, a mad freaking genius of irony and layering and evocation, the musical prodigies in my peer group are just not managing to get into it what he does. But in simplifying it they are making it more accessible to a wider range of people.

I have no idea how old the critic is, but the important data point he's missing is that a statistically significant chunk of my generation (I'm 36) and that of my immediately younger peers (in their twenties) love Leonard Cohen. Adore him. And, well, listen to his albums. Or songs, because we're often not so much an album-listening bunch.

I am going off anecdote here, and we all know what that's worth, but it seems to me that it's often baby boomers I hear calling the Buckley version "the definitive" one. (There are of course exception to this.) I think Cohen was just too ironical and fucked up for my parent's generation, who seem as a group (again, there are exceptions) to tend to prefer music that is more sincere. Cohen is not sincere. Cohen is yanking your chain, and that's a trick more commonly employed by people my age. (And the musicians of our parents' generations (because our parents span two generations) we've held on to--David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop. I had a great discussion with some friends at the climbing gym a couple of weeks ago regarding what the cutoff line for really, really, really liking Bruce Springsteen was. Determination: it's somewhere between me and the 39-year-old, and he may in fact be the line.)

So I would gess that that is a contributing factor in why metric tons of musicians (and music fans) in Gen X and Gen Y are obsessed with "Hallelujah," while our older compatriots prefer "Suzanne." Which is a perfectly nice song, don't get me wrong, but by contrast, you should hear my twenty-something friends talk about "Famous Blue Raincoat" and how they are trying to write stories around it. (Also a heavily covered song, these days. It used to be "Bird on a Wire" that got all the love.)

I'm not going to make any case that bitter ironicism is somehow more genuine than sincerity (because actually, I suspect it's a generational defense mechanism and the opposite is true). But we like "Hallelujah" because it's layered in irony and self-contradition and comes at the same thing from twenty angles. (Also, as a generation, we love weird-ass covers. Love them. When I heard Patti Smith was doing a covers album, I danced in the streets.)

Interestingly, because I don't watch enough TV to stay at all hip to current pop cultural trends, the first time I heard a cover of "Hallelujah" used in a TV show was at the end of an S1 episode of Criminal Minds. Where it is used over a brutally ironic montage of man-on-the-street interviews responding to an officer-involved shooting. Which is a good (legal) shoot, but may or may not have been engineered by the shooter--with or without his partner's knowledge. Oh, and they never tell you, either. You're left to construct the narrative on your own.)

I told the truth.I didn't come to fool you.

I'm going to be out for most of the day, so feel free to amuse yourself arguing or agreeing in the comment threads. ;-)

Comments

More Leonard Cohen news...

First time commenter, but buyer of Bear books, and I gots to tell you, I really, really, really enjoy your writing, both books & blogs.Anyway, was wandering around, saw this story, and thought of you: :)

Leonard Cohen announces first tour in 15 yearsCanadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen unveiled plans on Tuesday for his first tour in 15 years, starting in Toronto on June 6.The announcement comes a day after the gravel-voiced performer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York, along with Madonna, John Mellencamp, The Dave Clark Five and The Ventures.The tour will include major gigs like the Glastonbury Festival in Britain on June 29, where he could be performing to a crowd as large as 150,000 people, to the more intimate Opera House in Manchester.It includes dates in Toronto and Montreal and a series of concerts across Europe. The last confirmed date of the tour is Vienna on August 29, although more dates are expected to be added, organizers said."For many this tour will be the once in a lifetime opportunity to see the legend that is Leonard Cohen," said Rob Hallett from AEG Live, the company promoting the tour.Cohen, 73, published books of poetry and novels before turning to music. His 1967 debut album, "Songs of Leonard Cohen," included what became one of his most popular songs, "Suzanne."Other favorites include "Hallelujah," "Sisters of Mercy" and "Bird on a Wire." His songs have been recorded by R.E.M., Billy Joel, Elton John, Don Henley and others.Born in Montreal, Cohen started his musical career in New York in the late 1960s. He fought depression and retreated to a California monastery in the 1990s to study Zen.